A New Start: Bits and Pieces
by Saani
Summary: Companion fic to A New Start (formally Rebuilding). Mostly small scenes and drabbles and basically just a dumping ground for any head-cannon that doesn't make it into the main story for whatever reason.
1. Note

A collection of short scenes and drabbles that tie into A New Start (formally titled Rebuilding but I hated it).

The general idea is to have one or two for each 'episode', expanding on characters and relationships or concepts mentioned, because I simply just don't have the space to dump all of my head-cannon in without utterly side-tracking the main story from where I want it to go.

Because I'm currently up to chapter 13 (hopefully 14 within the week), the first bunch of these will be catch ups, relating to previous 'episodes'. After that it should be one or two within the same week as the corresponding chapter. You know, up until I get lazy. For the record, I have 26 'episodes' already planned, with a sequel in the works as well; this thing is probably going to end up massive. Or horribly neglected. One of the two.

As it is a tie-in fic, please be aware it will probably spoil any already posted chapters of A New Start. I won't wreck anything that is still to come though. Because that would be dumb.

I will accept prompts or suggestions (*hint hint*) as long as I can make them work with what I already have planned.

Enough babbling, I hope you enjoy!  
~Saani


	2. Trip to Earth

_Chronologically this belongs before A New Start, during Jazz and Co.'s trip to Earth, but it fits best alongside Chapter 11 simply due to the conversation 'Flight and Ratchet had. More or less just a character interaction piece_ _because I could._

* * *

"What the frag are you doing?"

"What's it look like? I'm bored!"

Sideswipe stared tiredly over at his commander, finding him upside-down, apparently trying to balance on one hand despite the moving ship. Admittedly, Jazz was succeeding and making it look rather easy as he did so, but the red warrior was far too tired and cranky to deal with such pointlessness right now. Well that and the huddled up femme in the corner seemed to be rather impressed with it. Sideswipe could do that too! With ease! Really! He was just a little busy _piloting their damn ship right now_.

Turning his attention back to the ship's controls in front of him, Sideswipe jerked the ship sideways ever so slightly, smirking to himself at the crashing sound that echoed behind him and the very quiet feminine giggle that followed.

"Not cool man!" Jazz grouched, picking himself up and pouting. "How did _you _of all bots end up such a spoilsport?"

"However many months we've been traveling in this hunk of junk with _no recharge _will do that to a bot," Sideswipe grumbled in response, rubbing at his tired optics.

"Well if you'd let me take over on occasion..." Jazz retorted, starting up an extremely familiar argument.

"I'd rather not die in my sleep."

"I'm not _that _bad!"

"_Fireflight _would do better than you and she's currently an arm down, can't see straight, and flies _herself _like a brick!"

Said Aerial snickered lightly, resting her head back against the wall beside her. "He sure got you," She mumbled, looking rather tired herself.

The trio's months-long journey (as Sideswipe correctly complained) had come after a Decepticon attack that ended in their entire team, a good ten Autobots, battered and scattering for their lives. Fireflight had been one of the first injured, entirely to take her powerful plasma cannon out of the fight, and it was only due to some quick thinking on both Jazz and Sideswipe's behalves that she was even still alive. Unfortunately that had also resulted in just the three of them ending up stuck together, no real medic or second pilot amongst them.

Jazz had done his best to patch them up with his limited knowledge and supplies, and at the very least all major bleeding had been stopped. Fireflight was still badly damaged though, her optics fritzing out, along with her entire left arm out of commission due to a messy dislocation in the shoulder that they'd been forced to wrap up and leave be. She was missing a fair amount of her red and silver paint, her wings were bent and twisted, and it was going to take ages for her to repair the plasma cannon lying beside her in pieces. That wasn't even taking into account her mental state; being separated from her four brothers that she relied emotionally very heavily on. She'd spent most of the trip curled up in her little corner, staring blankly into space or shivering while she slept restlessly.

Both males had come out of the confrontation in better shape, Sideswipe having not left the ship, and Jazz just being well..._Jazz_. That still left them scratched up and tired though and their energon supplies were beginning to run low along with whatever sanity they may or may not have had to begin with.

Huffing dramatically, Jazz planted himself back down on the ship's floor, sprawling himself out noisily. When that didn't gain him an immediate reaction he proceeded to fidget loudly for the next few minutes.

Sideswipe managed exactly three minutes and forty-two seconds before he slammed his head against the back of the chair in irritation and groaned. "Jazz!"

"Yeah?" Came the ninja's rather satisfied-sounding response.

"I am _two seconds_ off tossing you out of the ship. In _pieces_." The warrior growled, turning around to glare at the smaller bot. "Maybe I'll leave some fun clues for Prowl, like a big jigsaw puzzle."

"He'd probably enjoy that," Jazz replied with a shrug and cheeky grin.

Sideswipe snorted at that, shaking his head in tired amusement. "Primus you two have the weirdest relationship I have ever seen."

"Hey, don't knock what works man," Jazz pointed out cheerfully. "Wish he'd ended up with us, least I'd be less bored."

"I sure hope you mean babbling away about whatever boring slag he talks about whenever I stop listening," Sideswipe said, making a face, "Because there is no _funny-business_ in _my _ship."

"It's not even-"

"I fly it, it's my ship."

"Well alright then." Jazz raised his hands in defence before flopping back down on the floor and staring upside-down over at Fireflight who had utterly spaced out and taken to what looked like _braiding _some loose wiring from her cannon. Kicking lightly at the back of Sideswipe's seat and ignoring the growled 'what' he recieved in response, he whispered; "She's gettin' worse."

Sideswipe remained silent, leaning back to peer at the bot in question. "Means we're getting further from her brothers," He said quietly, "She's losing their influence on her personality and thinking."

"She gonna be okay?" Jazz questioned.

"She'll survive," Sideswipe mumbled, "I did."

"Yeah, hangin' around anyone and everyone that would put up with ya," Jazz reminded him, glancing up at the red bot. "Think she could use ya Siders."

The warrior stared over at the femme a moment, thinking. "You just want to drive."

"Yep."

"I hate you."

Jazz just grinned victoriously as Sideswipe tiredly got up, stretching out his stiff and sore limbs with a wince. The second the red bot took a step away, Jazz all but flopped into his vacated seat, resting his feet up on the control panel and blowing his subordinate a teasing kiss.

"Oh great, because that's what I wanted my last memory to be before my horrific, probably firey death," Sideswipe grouched sarcastically, carefully sitting down beside Fireflight and frowning when she didn't even look up.

"You're welcome," Came Jazz's cheeky response, causing him to roll his optics.

"Flight?" The warrior called quietly, poking the smaller bot gently in the side and flinching slightly when she jumped in surprise. He held his arms out, smiling when after a moment she clambered straight into his lap, curling back up into a ball. "Better?"

"Much," She mumbled happily, practically purring when he carefully pat her wings. "Jazz's hugs suck. And he kicks in recharge."

"I feel unappreciated!" Jazz complained back at her. "And at least I don't sleep walk! This is a very small ship ya know!"

Tiredly, the femme simply made a face back at him in response before leaning up to kiss Sideswipe's faceplate gently. "Thank you," She murmured before snuggling back into her new pillow and very quickly falling into recharge.

Giving Jazz and his very smug smirk a not very nice hand gesture he'd picked up from an organic world some years back, Sideswipe leaned his head back against the wall and let himself begin to drift off, muttering something about a 'much better memory'.

He managed all of an hour before Jazz and his utter lack of attention crashed them into a small chunk of rock.


	3. Leah

_Again set before A New Start, this time a couple of years. I also think I just died from an overdose of fluff, I have never written something so cutesy in my life._

* * *

Arcee shook her head in amusement as she watched Smokescreen pace around the base's main room, fidgeting and muttering irritably to himself. Lightly elbowing Bumblebee who was sitting beside her, looking thoroughly entertained himself, she leaned over and whispered; "He actually looks more nervous than Fowler did."

The yellow bot snickered in response, nodding. "I think the trip to the hospital scarred him for life."

A rather unimpressed Smokescreen turned to glare at them both moodily; "You do know I can hear you right?"

"Oh good, then you know how ridiculous you look," Bee retorted cheerily. "Seriously Smokes, relax already. They'll get here when they get here."

"You weren't there!" Smokescreen pointed accusingly before throwing his arms up dramatically. "All the yelling and panicking and oh Primus the _fluids_..." Here, he shuddered. "You could practically _feel _the pain she was in-!"

For the record, the _horrifying incident _in question was the perfectly healthy birth of June and William Fowler's new baby. The bots had all been waiting excitedly to meet the child ever since they'd first found out, even going as far as having one of them around the couple's house at all times. Unfortunately for him, it had been Smokescreen's turn to sit creepily in the driveway when the time had come and he'd had the absolute _pleasure _of driving the woman and her panicking and extremely unhelpful husband to the hospital.

"You heard Ratchet, apparently that's all perfectly normal," Arcee replied with a shrug, referring to the very long and extremely disturbing lecture the three of them, Bulkhead and Wheeljack had recieved on the human reproduction process _entirely _because Wheeljack had opened his stupid mouth. To be fair, he'd asked _why babies cried_, but the others didn't care and still blamed him. Mostly because they were all scared of what other lectures might come up if they dared blame the medic. "Kinda makes me glad I'm not a human though."

"I dunno, you'd make a pretty hilarious pregnant woman 'Cee," Bumblebee commented thoughtfully. "Actually, make that scary. You've already got that Mama Bear thing going with Jack and he's not even a helpless little baby."

The femme made a face; "I do not-"

"Yes you do," Came both male bots' flat responses, Smokescreen adding; "You practically ripped my head off for getting him into the _tiniest _bit of trouble."

"Tiniest- you almost got him_ killed by Decepticons_!" Arcee growled, narrowed optics.

Bumblebee sighed. "Aww come on guys, not this _again_! Would it kill you two to get along for just a little while?"

"Probably."

"Him maybe."

Luckily for the younger yellow bot his peacekeeping skills weren't needed this time around as the disagreement was quickly dropped at the sound of an old ambulance and a sports car pulling into the base. Smokescreen's head shot up and he went to rush over to the entrance only to end up sprawled out face first on the ground when Arcee smoothly tripped him up. Glaring up at her, she only smirked in return.

"Don't rush at them," She lectured, "They're probably tired."

That being said, she wasted no time hurrying outside to meet them, a snickering Bumblebee on her heels. "You guys both suck!" Smokescreen grouched, picking himself up and following.

Arcee smiled as she squatted down to assist an exhausted looking June out of Ratchet's back doors, a bundle of blankets held tightly to her chest. "Thank you," The woman said tiredly as Jack and Fowler climbed out on their own, Wheeljack transforming back to his root mode nearby.

"Before you all start asking; yes the Doc fussed endlessly, yes it was funny, no I have never seen that many scans run in such a small amount of time before, yes everyone is fine, _and..._it's a girl," The Wrecker rattled off with a cheeky grin, ducking the smack aimed at the back of his head when Ratchet was finally human-free and able to transform.

"Can we see?" Bumblebee piped up hopefully, doorwings flicking excitedly behind him. None of them had ever met a newborn baby before, their experience with humans mostly limited to their little group.

"Let them get inside first," Ratchet grouched, shooing everyone in the direction of the main entrance. "It's been a very long past couple of days."

"Yeah, you didn't have to spend them with Smokescreen," Bumblebee replied with a teasing grin aimed at his friend.

"I did up until I was smart enough to block his comm. signal," Ratchet retorted grumpily, stomping inside and heading straight for his medbay. "You've got five minutes and then I want both June and the baby to have some rest, got it?"

"Why didn't we think of that?" Bee hissed to Arcee, who snickered and shrugged. "We could've locked him in his room or something."

"Next time?"

"There is not ever going to be a next time," June groaned, handing the tiny baby over to her older brother before collapsing into one of the couches. "I am so tired, and these two have been next to useless," She waved an arm vaguely in Fowler and Jack's direction. "I owe Smokescreen just for getting us to the hospital in one piece, because neither of them were going to achieve it."

"Aww come on, I wasn't even there," Jack complained at his mother, quietly walking over to where the bots had gathered.

"The first thing you did when you _did _get to the the hospital was practically pass out in a chair," June pointed out fondly, snuggling into her husband's side when he joined her on the couch.

There was some mocking and teasing from most of the bots at that one, but it stopped at the sight of the infant, quickly devolving into very un-manly cooes and awws.

"You wanna hold her?" Jack offered Smokescreen, taking a seat at the bot's massive feet.

"I don't- I don't wanna break her or anything..."

"Ratchet's been man-handling her since we got clear of the city," June called over resignedly. "I imagine she's going to have to get used to it pretty quickly.

The younger bots all laughed at that, watching as the bundle of blankets was placed very carefully in Smokescreen's hands. "She's adorable," Arcee commented quietly, leaning over to see. "What's her name?"

"Leah," Jack replied with a proud smile.

"Hey there little Leah," Smokescreen said softly down at the child, waving a finger in front of her face and brightening when she opened her eyes to stare up at him. "Hey, she's looking at me! Look!"

"Guess she likes you," Arcee teased lightly. "Someone out there has to."

"Ignore her, she's a big meanie," Smokescreen cooed at the tiny baby. "I'm your big buddy Smokey and we're gonna be best friends, just you wait and see."


End file.
